1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to an improved data processing system and method. More specifically, the present application is directed to distributing integrated circuit net power accurately in power and thermal analysis.
2. Description of Related Art
In order for a computing system to function properly, the computing system's environment must be kept within the operating specifications of the components within the computing system. Temperature is one of the most important environmental conditions for a computing system. Keeping the computing system cooled is a major design cost and possibly a high operating cost. Therefore, it is important to understand integrated circuit power consumption and heat generation. Integrated circuit power consumption and heat generation provides thermal designers important information needed to design a cooling solution that will work in the computing system at a lowest possible cost. Any error in integrated circuit power consumption and heat generation could drive the cooling design cost higher than necessary in the event too much cooling is provided or cause the computing system to operate improperly if not enough cooling is provided.
Most integrated circuit designs generate a power map with alternating current and direct current power distributed among different circuits or macros within the integrated circuit. A macro is a group of computing devices within the integrated circuit, which may be as large as thousands of devices or simply a single device. The generated power map is used in thermal simulation. A thermal simulation model includes computing system air temperature along with heatsink, package, and integrated circuit temperature transfer parameters. The thermal simulation model provides a hardware correlation; however, the thermal simulation model is still deficient in that thermal simulation models assign power used by the wires that connect the macros, commonly referred to as net power, proportionally across the macros of the integrated circuit.
Currently, progress has been made in power and thermal analysis. Power may be calculated on a cycle-by-cycle basis and detailed power maps may be created that are used in accurate power and thermal analysis models. These power and thermal analysis models provide an accurate understanding of the processor electrically and thermally early in the design cycle. However, current power and thermal analysis models fail to indicate an accurate distribution of net power which impacts the thermal analysis accuracy.